Classic sidecar racing

Hi guys,For those that are interested,heres a vid of Roger Dixon winning a race at Mallory in 2006,the year before before he was tragically killed at Jehonville a couple of years back.Some of you may remember him from the TZ750 chair days.Commentary is a bit naff,but the action is good.Don't blink at the start.EnjoyHW

Great, and what a nice noise those old BMW outfits used to make. Always used to enjoy the German visitors coming over for a spin around Brands Hatch (my local track).
And that was the once great Mallory park, totally ruined by that awful bus stop chicane!

Great, and what a nice noise those old BMW outfits used to make. Always used to enjoy the German visitors coming over for a spin around Brands Hatch (my local track). And that was the once great Mallory park, totally ruined by that awful bus stop chicane!

Just found this one, & I like it, they featured in the race clip from Mallory, Ian Johnson/Kevin Roughan @ Lydden Hill 2007.Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

Nice Imp powered outfit.Who would have thought that funny little car would keep us entertained so much,so many years later.Roger (Dixons) hero was Florian Camathias,hence the colours.Wasn't Enders outfit a little more 'orangey'.His (Enders') passenger Ralf Engelhardt pedals a very quick Busch R100 motored outfit nowadays.A little bird tells me that Rogers outfit will return this year with a top notch pilot.Also on youtube a short interview with Roger at that same Mallory meeting.He was some character.His last words to me were: ''Oh,I don,t suppose I'm f.....g famous enough to give you my autograph'' Much missed,old lad.HW

Compact,light weight, and probably in a better state of tune in standard form.The Saab unit is quite small for its capacity (850cc) and the Imp,all aluminium and canted over in its original form.Chris Nickels from Swindon,is the exception to the rule.He has 2 outfits built in the late 60s early 70s.Old 'Grubby' has an Austin Healey Sprite/Mini Cooper motor.Paid 75 quid for it back then,and as he says;"for that money,it ought to be good".Number 2 has a Ford Cosworth 1300 BDA motor in it.Both genuine period Classic outfits,and still very hard to beat,especially on the Belgian road circuits.Anyone who knows Team Komnik,will be smiling now! What a gang of reprobates they are On the Saab side,anyone got a photo of Dale Wards beautiful Beckett tuned SAAB from the early 70s?HW

Choice I suppose The Saab lump was iron too but very compact compared to most other car derived motors. There were other options used too, VW Beetle, Honda S800, NSU 1200, Coventry Climax, DKW, Koehler (ex snowmobile), Konigs of course, one French driver played around with Panhard and Citroen engines.

The first Imp engine that I recall was driven by Vic Phillips in an outfit called Nerus Impetus in the mid 60s. Nerus at that time xere very successful in tuning rally Imps so bits were available, same goes for Ford and BMC lumps. VW powered chairs probably arose from a dragster bike that used a Beetle engine, that of Clive Waye in his DragWaye Bike as I recall none used before then. Ray English campaigned an NSU outfit for a good number of years both in open racing and latterly with CRMC, the favourite unit was from the NSU 1200TT version. When they went they were quite quick but somewhat temperamental.

Unfortunately modern racing has none of this individuality, ingenuity and engineering skills where the majority of outfits were home built, its passing I mourn. Today the F1 class is virtually a one make series of LCR/Suzuki, the F2s have a variety of chassis by different makers but dominated by Honda power. Oh well, that's progress

Choice I suppose The Saab lump was iron too but very compact compared to most other car derived motors. There were other options used too, VW Beetle, Honda S800, NSU 1200, Coventry Climax, DKW, Koehler (ex snowmobile), Konigs of course, one French driver played around with Panhard and Citroen engines.

The first Imp engine that I recall was driven by Vic Phillips in an outfit called Nerus Impetus in the mid 60s. Nerus at that time xere very successful in tuning rally Imps so bits were available, same goes for Ford and BMC lumps. VW powered chairs probably arose from a dragster bike that used a Beetle engine, that of Clive Waye in his DragWaye Bike as I recall none used before then. Ray English campaigned an NSU outfit for a good number of years both in open racing and latterly with CRMC, the favourite unit was from the NSU 1200TT version. When they went they were quite quick but somewhat temperamental.

Unfortunately modern racing has none of this individuality, ingenuity and engineering skills where the majority of outfits were home built, its passing I mourn. Today the F1 class is virtually a one make series of LCR/Suzuki, the F2s have a variety of chassis by different makers but dominated by Honda power. Oh well, that's progress

They're from West Australian photographer Peter de Vries, Peter McKay has sent them to me hoping someone can identify them.

Supposedly they're at Caversham, but I suspect they're not. Caversham was almost wholly a right-turn circuit, and most of the bends, certainly any left hand bends, were in the bush. That doesn't fit with these pics... so if anyone knows where they are it would be good too.

They're from West Australian photographer Peter de Vries, Peter McKay has sent them to me hoping someone can identify them.

Supposedly they're at Caversham, but I suspect they're not. Caversham was almost wholly a right-turn circuit, and most of the bends, certainly any left hand bends, were in the bush. That doesn't fit with these pics... so if anyone knows where they are it would be good too.

Nice to see you've found us here , Ray , your'e amongst friends , great pics BTW , i'm sure your questions , for once , will be answered

Going by the angle of the sun and the look of the surrounding landscape, Ray, I'd reckon they're definitely taken at the left-hander over the back at Caversham. Can't id the riders at this stage, but will pm Ken Devine and see if he can shed any light.

Originally posted by GD66Going by the angle of the sun and the look of the surrounding landscape, Ray, I'd reckon they're definitely taken at the left-hander over the back at Caversham. Can't id the riders at this stage, but will pm Ken Devine and see if he can shed any light.

They fooled us!

Here's a note from Brian McKay, Peter's uncle and the one who's had custody of the pics for some time:

"The location of those shots of the sidecar races, were at Caversham. The officials in those heady days gave permission for reverse circuit races especially for chairs."

So that's part of the answer... now, who are the riders and the acrobats?

They're from West Australian photographer Peter de Vries, Peter McKay has sent them to me hoping someone can identify them.

Supposedly they're at Caversham, but I suspect they're not. Caversham was almost wholly a right-turn circuit, and most of the bends, certainly any left hand bends, were in the bush. That doesn't fit with these pics... so if anyone knows where they are it would be good too.

I sent these off to Noel Clutterbuck, Ray, and from digging through his old Caversham programmes he seems to think sidecar #4 is piloted by Norm Phillips, and #5 by Ken Dobson, both on BSAs. No passengers listed in those days. So that's a start.... will try a couple of other blokes too.Regards GD